Free Republic

The time for pious American lectures is over. North Korea North Korea seeks respect on the cheap — and attention and cash — that it cannot win the old-fashioned way by the long, hard work of achieving a dynamic economy or an influential culture. Over the last quarter-century, it has proved that feigned madness and the road to nuclear weapons (Pakistan is another good example) provide a shortcut to all three goals: It is now feared, in the news, and likely to receive another round of Western danegeld. Setting off a bomb (as opposed to merely bragging that it soon...

China did not export any oil products to North Korea in November as U.S. sanctions against the isolated country continue take effect, according to a report Tuesday from Reuters. The move comes as North Korea ratchets up ongoing nuclear and missile programs despite years of U.N. resolutions prohibiting the actions. U.N. Security Council imposed a new batch of limits of oil products earlier this month to the communist country. China did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil, or any other petroleum products to North Korea last month, according to the report, that relied on General Administration...

Australian police have arrested a Sydney man accused of acting as an agent for North Korea by allegedly attempting to broker sales for Pyongyang including components used in ballistic missiles. "This case is like nothing we have ever seen on Australia soil," Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters Sunday morning. "This is black market 101." The suspect has been identified as a 59-year-old naturalized Australian citizen who was born in South Korea.

North Korea appears to be pressing ahead with its nuclear programme. Satellite images recently detected hectic activity at the North Korean nuclear test site, Punggye-ri. Experts say that after North Korea's last nuclear test, minor tremors were detected near Mt Mantap, located close to the nuclear site. However, Pyongyang is now engaged in additional tunnel work at the site. According to experts at 38North, a US-based think tank, the fresh activities were detected at the West Portal of the site – indicating that the site may be undergoing an expansion. Meanwhile, the North Portal, where the previous five tests were...

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested the United States might not participate in the Winter Olympics due to security concerns about North Korea. The day before, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley suggested it was an "open question" as to whether or not the U.S. would send athletes. Both later walked back these comments, suggesting America would take part but that the White House was still concerned about safety at the Olympics, which will be held in February in Pyeongchang, a town 50 miles from the border between South Korea and the North. When asked on Fox...

An increasing number of fishing boats from North Korea has been appearing off Japan – some in distress, some abandoned and some with dead bodies on board – raising fears about infiltration by spies as tension with North Korea surges.

NORTH Korea better be watching its back today as thousands of US troops and 230 warplanes descend on Kim Jong-un’s doorstep. Vigilant Ace – a massive joint war games – kicks off today as the US and South Korea rehearse for battle with Pyongyang. Hundreds of aircraft and thousands of soldiers and airmen are taking part in the drill, which is one of the biggest ever of its kind. US and South Korean forces will be rehearsing for a full-scale war with North Korea. Nuclear fears have reignited as Kim fired his latest missile last week – his biggest and...

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated over the weekend as US stealth fighters moved into the region and official sources from both North Korea and the US said the chances of war are growing. The bellicose rhetoric from North Korea came in two phases: On Saturday, a statement from its Foreign Ministry said US President Donald Trump is "begging for a nuclear war" through what it called an "extremely dangerous nuclear gamble on the Korean Peninsula"; A day later, a commentary from Pyongyang's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said US-South Korea joint air exercises...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Thursday of trying to provoke North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into “flying off the handle” over his missile program to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country. In some of his most robust comments on the subject to date, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also flatly rejected a U.S. call to cut ties with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile program and said U.S. policy towards North Korea was deeply flawed. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have flared after North Korea said it had successfully tested a new...

Hillary: Trump, China should soften up on North Korea Hillary Clinton used a conference in Beijing to blast both President Trump and the Chinese over their stance toward North Korea — saying it needs to soften up soon before things get out of hand and nuclear war breaks out. Serving as the keynote speaker at Caijing Magazine’s three-day annual conference on Tuesday, the former secretary of state called on Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to avoid “bluster” and “personal taunts” when dealing with Pyongyang, according to Bloomberg. She reportedly criticized the Trump administration for retreating from diplomacy in recent...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has expressed his gratitude to the supreme leaders of Iran and North Korea in two recent letters thanking them for standing behind his government, which has been accused by the West of perpetrating human rights abuses throughout a six-year war against jihadists and other insurgent groups. In a letter sent Thursday to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Assad thanked the leading Shiite Muslim cleric for providing crucial support to the Syrian military as it advanced against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) toward the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where a three-year siege by the militants was...

Former North Korean soldiers who defected to South Korea on Monday claimed "underwater suicide squads" may have been responsible for the mysterious sinking of a South Korean naval vessel on Friday. They are similar to the underwater demolition teams operated by the South Korean Navy, the defectors claimed. Recruited from the cream among North Korea's naval commandos, members of the teams are treated well but undergo brutal training. According to one high-ranking North Korean defector, the North formed suicide attack squads in each branch of the military after the country's leader Kim Jong-il said during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq...

(LEAD) N. Korea threatens to apply 'wartime laws' on detained U.S. national By Sam Kim SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened Thursday to apply "wartime laws" on a U.S. national it is holding, citing what it called U.S. hostilities against the communist country over the sinking of a South Korean warship. Earlier this year, a North Korean court sentenced Aijalon Gomes, a 30-year-old American, to eight years in a labor camp for illegal entry on Jan. 25. The communist state's official Korean Central News Agency said its authorities are considering additional measures against Gomes "from the perspective of...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un keeps his citizens on a tight leash, according to defectors, but the leader has now constricted his control even further by banning North Koreans from drinking and singing, according to a new report. Citizens have been banned from participating in “any gatherings related to drinking, singing and other entertainment,” Yonhap News Agency reported Monday. The North Korean regime is also “strengthening control of outside information.”

An experienced South Korean surgeon operating on a defector from North Korea has described his shock upon finding dozens of unusual parasites inside the man’s stomach, suggesting widespread health issues among the population of the secretive state.... ..."I have been doing surgery for more than 20 years, but I have not seen such parasites. I will not be able to find them in [South] Korea," said Lee, who is a respected trauma specialist in the country.

Fresh alarm is being raised over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, after a report that at least 200 people died in an accident at the country’s nuclear test site. Japan’s Asahi TV on Tuesday reported that at least 200 people died and 100 were trapped when a tunnel collapsed at the Punggye-ri test site. The collapse happened days after North Korea conducted its sixth and largest underground nuclear test in September, provoking fears that the Punggye-ri site may be falling apart. On Monday, Korea Meteorological Administration chief Nam Jae-cheol said that another detonation could possibly prompt a “collapse of the...

/start my translation A N. Korean escapee, a former N. Korean missile project worker, intent on defecting to U.S. came to S. Korea in '99 ... "secured an U.S. visa, evading S. Korean gov." "N. Korea imported 90% of missile parts from Japan. (missiles) were produced in 4 different factories" A N. Korean escapee, who worked for N. Korean missile production, held a press conference on May 15, 2003, at Washington's National Press Club, announcing his intention to defect to U.S. Revealing only his last name, Lee, he remarked that he met in the morning the Representative Ed Royce(R) and...

Full Title: Blind, deaf, mangled teeth and jerking on a stretcher: Otto Warmbier's parents reveal the horrific injuries he had when he was returned by North Korea after months of torture Otto Warmbier's parents say their son was blind, deaf and had mangled teeth when he was brought back to the US after months of torture in North Korea Fred and Cindy Warmbier said the 22-year-old was jerking and howling on a stretcher when they first saw him when his plane landed in Ohio on June 13 They lashed out at North Korea in their first interview since Otto's death,...

A former foreign policy adviser to President Obama is warning there could be trouble if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chides President Trump over the fact that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. "God save us if Kim Jong Un makes a comment about Hillary's popular vote victory," Ben Rhodes wrote on Twitter Friday. Trump and North Korea's leader have been locked for months in a war of words and threats that has prompted concern among foreign leaders who fear Washington and Pyongyang may be hurtling toward a confrontation. Trump said last month...

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee charged that President Trump's United Nations speech ripping the "embarrassment" Iran deal could have killed any chance for a peaceful solution with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime," Trump declared in his first address to the world body in New York. Trump, who said Monday...